There are many types and designs of instruments which have been developed and used in ophthalmic surgery. Such devices may be inserted into the eye and used to perform cutting or surgical procedures.
An example of such a device is depicted in U.S. Pat. No. 3,945,375 entitled Rotatable Surgical Instrument which issued on Mar. 23, 1976 to A. Banko. In this instrument, the cutting member operates like a drill bit. Tissue is drawn inside as the cutter rotates.
Other patents such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,061,146 entitled Tissue Macerating Instrument issued on Dec. 6, 1967 to E. F. Baehr, et al. This patent shows a tool used in a cataract operation. The instrument employs a rotating cutter which is again inserted into the eye to perform cataract surgery.
Other patents such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,167,943, U.S. Pat. No. 4,200,106 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,236,519 depict various devices for performing eye surgery. These devices relate to cutters and other instruments as punches for operating on or in association with the cornea or other parts of the eye.
As indicated above, such instruments are extremely useful to the surgeon and for example, they have substantially reduced the operating time and therefore provide for faster patient recovery.
In any event, there is a fairly common operation which is performed known as a peripheral iridectomy. In such an operation, an aperture or hole is made by the surgeon in the iris of the eye. This hole is made to alleviate pressure and to further be used in cataract procedures. Essentially, the irridectomy is a fairly common operation and is performed many times during the course of a year in this country and elsewhere. The operation as presently performed requires that the surgeon cut through the cornea of the eye to gain access to the iris and thereafter cut a hole or remove a portion of the iris, thus completing the iridectomy. As one can ascertain, the cutting of the eye, as well as the attendant surgery is relatively complicated and time consuming and further involves a fairly extensive recovery period for the patient.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a surgical instrument which can be employed by the surgeon to perform an iridectomy in a simple procedure thus eliminating many of the disadvantages as present in the prior art.